xt30ii – Fotomonkey Photography

Feb 09

by FotoMonkey in Uncategorized 0 comments tags: car show, m10, small town, xt30ii

It’s a Classic

I was scrolling through Facebook last night when an ad popped up for the 8th Annual Hastings Blvd Car Show and I felt like it’d be a cool thing to check out. I’m always looking for something to do on the weekend that allows me to take some nice pictures. So what the heck is a Hastings? Hastings is a small town in North Florida. It’s got a population of less than a thousand and it’s another one of those towns I’ve driven through countless times but never took the time to stop. The day started off pretty bad. I had this great vision to capture a nice timelapse with my GoPro only to realize that I’d forgotten the screw to secure it to the mount. I managed to find a hollow wall anchor in the car that actually held it in place, though. Win! Well, not for long. I was using the media mount and there seems to be some sort of issue with it. Every time I’d turn it on, it would just keep cutting and powering back on. As soon as I took it out of the media mount, it’d work great. Ok, no problem. Ditch the […]

Jan 27

by FotoMonkey in photowalk 0 comments tags: sooc, themes, xt30ii

Red

Today I headed back downtown to follow the advice of YouTube’s Tokyo Grit & Grain. In a recent video, he suggested an interesting challenge as a creative reboot. It was really rather simple, actually…shoot the color red. And so I did. As luck would have it, there was a special reading event for the kids and I just happened to head to an area near the main library. It was teeming with people and photo ops. I actually spoke to more people than I normally do which was a stretch. Dare I say I actually had a full on conversation with a woman? 🙂 She wanted to see my pictures which led to a long discussion about her own art and how she got into it as a preschool teacher. I also did a lot more asking permission today. Normally I never do. But today I felt it would help. I only got turned down once. Others were more than happy to help. All of these images are straight out of the camera. I tried to capture compelling images, and not just focus on the color alone. Hopefully I was successful. Well, the Mini isn’t very compelling, but it was […]

Jan 20

by FotoMonkey in photowalk 0 comments tags: sooc, xt30ii

Darien, Georgia

Today it felt right to take another road trip. I’d actually planned it for last weekend but wasn’t feeling it enough. It was our coldest day of the season and in the low 40s when I got in the car, but despite the temperature I decided to make a day of it and headed to the small coastal town of Darien, GA. Darien is another town I’ve driven by countless times while traveling on I-95 but I’ve never had a need or interest in stopping. However, this changed when I made my Brunswick trip and the lady at the visitor’s center suggested it. As I pulled off of the highway and into the parking lot of the Darien visitor’s center, I picked up a map and walking tour of the area. I’m a little disappointed in the map. It really should include addresses. I tried location a couple of items based on the dot that was placed on the map and fell flat. It would be nice if you didn’t have to drive through random neighborhoods looking like a lost tourist. I used two recipes for this trip. The first is probably going to end up as one of my […]

Nov 21

by FotoMonkey in photowalk 0 comments tags: b&w, xt30ii

Ahead of the Holiday

I’m sort of off this week. I say sort of because I’ve worked so far and will be working Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday despite technically being on vacation. In an effort to keep my mind focused where it needs to be (relaxing) I headed downtown today for some street photography. My goal was framing…using the surroundings to naturally frame the subject. I’ll admit that I struggled. I took my 25/f2 and most of my shooting was across the street which was too far away. I think my success rate would’ve been higher with the zoom. Oh well, that’s why I do these exercises. This is the best shot out of the target series. We have a park downtown which I’ve visited several times for one particular shot. Unfortunately, it’s never materialized until today. I don’t know if it’s quite what I had in my head but I’m happy with how it came out. As I was walking back to my car I had one final opportunity. This woman was probably on her way back to the office after her lunch break. I tried to be inconspicuous. I don’t think it worked. 🙂

Nov 04

by FotoMonkey in photowalk 0 comments tags: florida, mural, palatka, xt30ii

Palatka, Florida

In my continuing quest to seek out new places that I haven’t explored around my home turf, I traveled to Palatka, Florida yesterday. It’s actually got a pretty interesting history so I’d encourage you to read the link. I’ve been through Palatka countless times but I’ve never really stopped to see what the town has to offer. With a population around the 10,000 mark, it’s considerable larger than where I grew up but it still has a familiar feel. I parked at one end of the historic downtown area and walked about 20 blocks. I was surprised that despite it being a weekend with the holidays right around the corner, very little was open. There are plenty of shops which should’ve been busy but most of downtown was closed up. My main target was a large number of murals representing the community’s history. They were very well done. Something that impressed me is the kindness of the people I crossed paths with. Many times I found myself shooting across the street to get the entire mural in the frame. On more than one occasion, driver’s would stop and wait for me to finish rather than driving through my shot. At […]